With IANA already developing policies for the transfer of space between RIR`s and with the depletion of IPv4 space in other regions approaching faster and faster every day, there is a high likelyhood that the rest of the world will turn to the unused African allocations for more IPv4 space. With AfriNIC having enough space to last what amounts to a couple of years, there is sufficient space to allow for sale of a portion of this space outside of the African region.

2.) Summary of How this Proposal Addresses the Problem Above

This proposal prevents the situation where foreign entities are trying to grab the space through illicit means, and regulate the distribution of the space while providing some benefit back to the African community. This policy will also allow for further revenue streams into AfriNIC, which can be used for the active promotion and development of IPv6. Further more, the policy will prevent a situation where we are sitting with large blocks of unused IPv4 space long after such space becomes useable, due to the rest of the world having migrated to IPv6.

3.) The Proposal

On the date of depletion of IPv4 resources within either the RIPE/ APNIC/ LACNIC/ ARIN regions, AfriNIC will make available space out of a single unallocated /8 for sale to foreign entities.

3.1) Such space will be sold at a premium price, currently for the purposes of this proposal at LIR rate + 100% in order to allow for growth in AfriNIC revenue streams .

3.2) The foreign entities applying for this space will have to meet all standard AfriNIC space allocation requirements.

3.3) No more than one /8 out of the available AfriNIC space will be made available for this purpose.

4.) Summary

While this policy may seem like a potential way to allow the rest of the world to pillage the African resources, it can be argued that the space will be used by foreign entities irrespective of the will of the African community. This policy merely allows the African community to, in some small way, benefit from the resources we have available.

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